A Beautiful Tribute

...to my Aunt Shirley, written by my sister, Lisa...
Just click here and here.

The past couple of days have been very difficult ones. However, they were also beautiful and love-filled, sentimental and sweet too.

Our family spent the Thursday night and day helping to support Aunt Shirley as she made tough decisions. She will probably be with us only a few more days, so Friday my dear Aunt Shirley decided to enter hospice care for her cancer. They are working to ensure that my aunt is comfortable and pain-free. Family and friends have been with her around the clock since then. My wonderful husband has watched the kids so that I can be at the hospital as much as possible.

This time with my aunt and my family has been so bittersweet. We've cried, we've laughed as we shared sweet memories together, and we've just enjoyed being together with my aunt. Despite the sad circumstances that brings us all together, I am thankful for this time.

I am so sad to say good-bye to my aunt. I wish that we could have more time. I don't want to let her go yet. However, I am thankful that I have had the opportunity to have some one on one time with her, where I said what was in my heart.

She has lived such a beautiful, godly life, and I know that she is going on to a better place. And she'll feel so much better there.

But I will miss her terribly.

Evan's Preschool Valentine's Day Party

Yesterday, I spent the morning with my youngest son at his preschool's Valentine's Day party. So fun!

The kids made their own mailboxes for their Valentines...

They they delivered their Valentines to all of their friends. Connor assisted Evan. :)
The kids made their own Valentine "IPODS" made out of a Conversation heart box and Hershey's kisses.
They had yummy Valentine treats...mmmm. I am so proud that I didn't cheat on my diet today!

I loved their sweet Valentine song!

Untitled from Sarah Nosek on Vimeo.

Here they are in line, all ready to go play some Valentine games in the gym.

They played a game of matching numbers on hearts.

When we got home, Evan sorted through his Valentines, very pleased with all of his loot. :)
Then he told me, "I love you, Mommy. You came to my preschool today!"
What a sweet little Valentine boy!

Aunt Shirley

My Aunt Shirley, who I love very much, is continuing to fight cancer. She has had a really tough time for the past few days. She is often in my thoughts and prayers but even more so tonight. I get updates from my mom and dad (Aunt Shirley's brother) who are always at her side, and I just am praying for my aunt's comfort and wellness to return. I know that she is fighting very hard, but it is a very hard fight.

Right now she is not having many visitors simply because she is uncomfortable and tired, and her immune system is very compromised. I wish I could visit her. I wish I could do something beyond sending flowers and making get-well cards with the kids. I know how much she appreciates these gestures of love, but I wish that somehow I could give her more.

She simply has always been an amazing aunt. When my siblings and I were children, she would have us stay with her for a week. She would spoil us and play with us. She would let us dress up in her old dresses. We went camping with her. She took us on vacation with her to a very special place for our family, Pentwater, Michigan. She was a teacher, and let us help her set up her third grade classroom. She was one of the reasons that I became a teacher myself. Guess what I taught? Third and fourth grade. :) She counseled me through my college years, encouraged me as a young teacher, and gave me all of her teaching materials when she retired. When I started dating Dave, she right away loved him, and when we married, always told me what a good choice I made. We got together at countless holiday celebrations, and she never missed one of our childrens' birthday parties. We would go out for special dates to lunch or dinner. She would never fail to tell me what a good mom I am, even when I doubt myself, and always tells her friends with pride how wonderful her great nieces and nephews are.

She is such a good person, and I can't stand to see cancer hurting her.

Will you please say a prayer for my aunt?

Awwww...

I've been on my diet and working out for about 5 weeks now, and all has been going well except that I overdid the running a little bit. I now have runner's knee, and can't run on it again until it heals.

I was discouraged at first because I've been doing really well, feeling motivated and seeing results. I didn't want my knee to derail me from the progress I was making, and I didn't want to use it as an excuse not to work out. So for the past week I've been checking out local health clubs and using guest passes to swim laps. I've been enjoying a different kind of a workout, and although I've never done a lot of swimming, I do feel like I am improving.

Dave has been very supportive of me during this process of getting back into shape. He's watched the kids while I've been working out, and has not complained once about the different foods I'm bringing into the house. This morning he surprised me with an early Valentine's Day present...a year's pass to our local health club. I had contemplated just buying a pass monthly until my knee was better, but he thought that doing more swimming would help me with my back and knee because it is a low-impact exercise. What a thoughtful gift! So this morning Dave again watched the kids while I went to work out.

When I came back home, the kids led me to the back door to show me something. This is what I saw...

Awwww... Apparently he, Caroline and Evan made it together. They followed him in the tracks he made. The thought of it makes my heart go pitter-pat. ;) Wish I could have seen that!

I do believe that this was one of my favorite Valentines I've ever gotten.

Lucky, lucky boy

Evan got to have playdates with two of his best buddies today. Ryan came over in the morning, and Connor came over after nap time. Evan was in a very happy place today. :)

Yes, if you were wondering, he did wear his Spiderman costume all day long. And Connor was pretty happy to don the Mr. Incredible costume. They played superheroes the whole time!

These two LOVE each other. When it was time to go, they gave each other the biggest hug and wouldn't let go...

The older kids thought it was so funny that they did the same thing! :))
Funny kids!

This dog...

...is a big fan of snow. Can you tell? ;)

Untitled from Sarah Nosek on Vimeo.

Last Saturday, when we were at my in-laws' house, Dave and his brother, Mark, took the kids and Moxie on a little hike in the snow. When they came back, Moxie was COVERED from head to toe in snow that seemed to be fused to her fur. Her legs looked like she was wearing white moon boots! Her face looked like this...Honestly, I was surprised that she wasn't walking into walls because of all of the snow on her face blocking her vision. The only thing to do when she gets this covered is to use a blowdryer to melt all of the snow off of her. I think that my father-in-law thought that I was crazy.

Silly, silly dog. :)

Happiness is...

playing Playdough with a pal!

Evan LOVES his good buddy, Ryan, so when I told him that Ryan was coming over for a playdate this morning, saying that he was excited would be a major understatement. ;) He asked when he would be coming, and I started to say, "As soon as you get dressed..." I was going to continue with, "and we get the house cleaned up a little bit, and Mommy has to shower too." However, he was already running upstairs to get dressed. Hee-hee!

When Ryan finally came, after Evan asked me 42 times when he would get here, they played a little castle, superheroes, and then finally settled on playdough. They played at that for about an hour and a half! I loved how hard they were working at rolling out their playdough, and how they had to stand on their chairs to cut out their shapes.


They Evan got a little silly and made a hat out of Playdough. I'm glad Ryan gets his sense of humor! :)

Then these two cute little monkeys had lunch together.
I'm so glad these two are friends! :)

Blizzard 2011!!

As the kids were dismissed from school yesterday, their teachers gave them the news that there would be no school today because of a huge snow storm that was headed our way. When the kids got home and told me the news, you would have thought that it was Christmas again. They were that excited. ;)

So last night, we let the kids stay up a little later than usual. The wind was howling outside and the snow was blowing, but we had a fire going in the fireplace, and snuggled up together under warm blankets. It was so cozy!

This morning we awoke to major amounts of snow. As in 20.8 inches!!! The kids could hardly eat breakfast fast enough, because they were dying to get outside!

Look at these drifts by our house! They were ready-made snowforts just for the kids!

They stayed out all morning enjoying an amazing winter wonderland, creating snowforts galore.

This is the view from the door out of our laundry room! Look at that wall of snow!

Dave worked all morning plowing our driveway and sidewalk's as well as a neighbor's because he was stranded at work. He's a good guy!

Another fort...
My little snow bunny!

The kids came in for lunch, but then the older three headed right back out into the snow while Evan napped. I was astounded that they could play out in the cold for that long!

Evan headed back out as soon as he was done with his nap...and this is what he looked like when he finally came in for the day. Such rosy cheeks!

We warmed them up with some hot chocolate when they all finally came in. I have a feeling that they will be sleeping well tonight! :)
And that's a good thing...There's no school again tomorrow, so they'll need their rest tonight for all of the snow fun to come!